Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

Okay, let me ask you a broader question then, Tánaiste. When we take the prevailing ethos of the period 2000 up to 2007, when some would say, the entire establishment - from the financial markets to the media to the established political parties, or the majority of the Oireachtas, say - were saturated with an ethos that provided for maximisation of profit, maximisation of deregulation and privatisation, what I think The New York Timesin 2005 referred to Ireland as "the Wild West" of finance, would it have made a difference, really, no matter how skilled the Oireachtas ... or the Opposition was at the time?